RSW was in Korea for work, so I decided to hop on over for a mini-vacay and hang out with her while she was there...1st let me start by saying you do not "hop on over" to Asia. It is a grueling 11-12 hour flight over the Pacific from San Francisco, plus whatever travel it took to get to San Francisco. All said, about a 24 hour travel day, with layovers and what not.
Needless to say, I wasn't in the most chipper of moods when I arrived in Korea, but the biz-class fold-flat seat sure helped (thanks to RSW and her elite-mileage status). RSW's Korea office had arranged for one of their sales people to come pick me up from the airport. I was actually looking forward to making the journey from Incheon to Bundang (suburb of Seoul) on my own, but it's bad form in Korean culture to turn down things, so I grudgingly accepted the ride. Now, on a normal day, it's about an hour's drive from the airport to Bundang (apparently it's an hour anywhere when you travel in Seoul). I stress "on a normal day" here, because my ride was anything but normal.
The nice fellow that was sent to pick me up was a little late, no big deal, but remember, I've been up for close to 24 hours at this point. All I want to do is get to the hotel, take a shower and fall asleep. So Mr. Jung shows up, looking positively frazzled (apparently the whole office was calling him at the exact same time to find out why he was late in picking me up). I walk up to him (he's got a nice little sign with my name on it) and introduce myself. In broken English, he apologizes for being late, and quickly grabs my roller. Nothing out of the usual so far, right? Oh, it gets sooooo much better.
Mr. Jung and I walk out of the terminal towards the parking area, and he immediately looks confused. Folks, he just parked his car not 5 minutes ago, and he's already forgotten how to get back to it! I ask him where he parked, and he says A7. Naturally, I start looking around for signs for the "A" parking lot. Once I found a sign, I took off in that direction. He was still unsure, so he went over to the information desk to ask them where the "A" lot was. It was, shocker, in the direction I was already walking. We take the elevator down to the "A" lot, and I start looking for signs for 7. There are none. It starts at around 10, and goes up to the 30's. We're now standing in a massive underground parking garage, and Mr. Jung is sort of aimlessly walking around, trying to find his nondescript Korean car, that looks like the thousands of other cars in the garage. As I said, he's wandering down random aisles, and BOOM! there's his car. Was it in A7? Not even close. A22. I can see how those two can be easily mistaken for each other, and I point that out to him, in my wise-ass way. For future reference, Koreans don't get sarcasm. Oops.
When RSW told me her office was sending someone to pick me up, I naturally assumed (oh, how very, very stupid of me) that the office would send someone who knew how to get from the airport to Bundang in a relatively reasonable time, or, at the very least, had a GPS device to tell them HOW to get from the airport to Bundang in a relatively reasonable time. Nope, nada, no way, Jose.
As we're making our way out of the Airport, I casually ask how long the trip will take, he says 1 hour. He picked me up at the airport around 4pm. We spent about a 1/2 an hour wandering around the parking garage, so I'm thinking we'll be at the hotel by 5:30, 6:00 at the latest if we hit some traffic.
As we're driving along, I can almost immediately tell this guy doesn't really quite know where he's going. How, do you ask, could I possibly know that? The fact that we had to make a U-turn to back track to an exit he missed clued me in. I'm trying to make the best of it, taking in the sights and talking with his wife (did I mention we stopped to pick her up somewhere?) about various things including New York City. Now I mentioned earlier that Koreans dont get sarcasm, but they get racism. Or rather, they are very good at stereotyping people. As I mentioned, I was talking with his wife about NYC. She says that one day, she would like to go there, but she is scared to, because of all the blacks, and they are very dangerous. Huh?
I attempt to clear up the (apparently very common) Korean misconception about NYC, and how there are all types of races there, and it's a fairly safe city. She's not hearing it. Oh well.
Now, Mr. Jung is still completely lost, and we're driving in circles. We passed a certain skyscraper three times, once on the left, and twice on the right (look kids, Big Ben, Parliament!)
Long story short, we FINALLY arrive at the hotel, almost 3 hours later. Yep, you read right. The 1 hour journey took the one guy in Korea that doesn't own a GPS 3 hours.
As I'm settling into the room, the telephone rings, and it is Mr. Jung, stating that his boss has "ordered" him to take me out for dinner. Remember how it is impolite to turn things down? Well, this time I did, saying I was tired and was going right to bed, when in reality, I just didn't want to be stuck in a car with him for another 3 hours.
Insert your own joke about Asian drivers here.
